Courtney is an architect with 30 plus years of experience in a wide range of building types working in Dallas, Boston, and the Bay Area. After graduating from UCLA in 1981, he worked in Dallas on large retail and commercial high-rise projects before moving to Boston in 1986. There he worked in transportation, multi-family, and institutional projects before starting his own practice in 1992 with the House on Forte Pond. In 1995, coinciding with an award from the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association for the Solar Farmhouse, he founded the subsidiary, New England Solar Homes.

During his Co-Chair appointment to the Committee on the Environment at the Boston Society of Architects in 1999, he founded the green building consultancy, CMA Consulting Architects. One of the notable commissions was the completion of a green building feasibility study for the National Marine Life Center funded by the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust.

In 2006, Courtney moved back to California to be closer to friends and family and worked for several commercial firms before re-establishing his practice this year. He’s also a continuing part-time instructor at Laney College, Architecture Department, teaching Sustainable Design.